Al Joaker bows out but Shehab holds fort for UAE in Asian snooker

The lone-standing cueist and eighth seed has now won two matches and lost one in Group H.

Mohamed Shehab, the UAE's lone man standing in Qatar.
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DOHA // Mohamed Shehab, bounced back in style at the Asian Snooker Championship as he hammered Ang Boon Chin 4-1 yesterday. The win means the UAE player is on course to qualify for the last-16 stage of the tournament despite his loss to Alan Lin of Hong Kong on Sunday night.

Mohammed Al Joaker, the country's other representative in the competition, bowed out of contention following an unexpected 4-1 loss to the Singapore veteran Lim Chun Kiat yesterday afternoon. Al Joaker needed a victory over his unseeded opponent following his 4-2 loss to Rais Senzahi of Afghanistan on Monday evening.

But despite a break of 76 he could not play his way out of a tough Group D in the round robin stage.

Shehab, meanwhile, raced to a 3-0 lead against his Singapore opponent. Ang Boon pulled one back in the fourth frame but the UAE player extinguished any hope of a comeback with a brilliant break of 82 in the fifth. The eighth seed has now won two matches and lost one in Group H.

His remaining matches are against Yousef Alwadi of Saudi Arabia and the Sri Lankan veteran Susantha Boteju and, on form, he is the favourite to win both.

In a major upset yesterday, the two time former Asian champion and ex-professional Jin Long of China was whitewashed 4-0 by Mohammed Al Binali of Qatar.

The players will be re-seeded for knockout stage after the first round that concludes tomorrow.

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